Pen attachment



C. F. CLARKE.

PEN ATTACHMENT APPLICATION FILED OCT. 2, 1919.

CHARLES F. CLARKE, OF MADISON, WISCONSIN.

PEN ATTACHMENT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 20, 1920.

Application filed October 2, 1919. Serial No. 327,932.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that 1, CHARLES F. CLARKE, asubject of the King of. Great Britain, residing at Madison, in thecounty of Dane, State of Wisconsin, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in en Attachments; and I do hereby declare the following tobe a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as willenable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and usethe same.

This invention relates to an attachment for use with the ordinary steelpen, whereby a fairly large amount of ink is taken up at each dip of thepen whereby continual dipping of the pen in the ink is avoided, and adevice approaching the time saving advantages of the ordinary fountainpen is obtained, and which, at the same tlme, is very much cheaper thanthe ordinary fountain pen.

One of the advantages of the invention is to provide a one-piece sheetmetal inkholding attachment, provided with a number of slots andconfigurations which hold ink by capillary attraction, and also providedwith split feeding points whereby the ink is readily and freely fed tothe pen nib.

It is another object of the invention to provide an ink-holdingattachment which may be assembled in position with the ordinary penholder without any extraneous attachments at all.

Other objects and advantages will appear as the description proceeds.

In the drawings illustrating one embodiment of my invention,

Figure 1 is a sectional view of a pen nib in position in a pen holder,with my improved ink-holding attachment in operative relation therewith;

Fig. 2 is a view looking at the underside of the pen nib;

Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of my inkholding attachment apart from thepen and as it would be sold.

My improved ink-holding attachment is preferably made out of a singlepiece of metal. At one end the metal is pointed as at 1, and providedwith a slit 2. At the inner end of the slit 2 there is punched arelatively wide slot 3, the parts of the metal adjacent the slot beingbent into corrugations 4.

The metal beyond the corrugations is merged into a flat portion 5 whichmerges into the bend 6 and a second fiat portion 7 the two mentionedportions 5 and 7 being bent into intimate contact with each other toform a mounting shank for holding the at tachment in position.

Portion 7 merges into a bent portion 8 and a substantially flat portlon9, portion 9 being substantially co-extensive with the corrugations 4:.Portion 9 is also provided with an ink-holding slot 10. Portion 9, atthis end, is pointed and bent downwardly as at 11 into contact with thealready described poings 1. This pointed portion is slitted as at 1 Whenthe ink-holding attachment is assembled in operative relation with theordinary pen nib as shown in Fig. 1, where the pen nib is indicated at13, it is held in position in the pen holder 14 by being pushed into theslot 15 between the outer shell of the pen holder and the shell element16 mounted in the pen holder.

The shank portion of my ink-holding attachment which may be curved, ifdesired, but which I have shown as fiat, is pushed into the same slot 15as the pen nib 13, whereby the pointed end 1 and the lower bends of thecorrugations as shown in Fig. 1 are in contact with the pen nib. Ink isretained in the slit 2, in the slot 8 and in the spaces between thecorrugations 1, and also in the slot 10 and slit 12. The pointedportions 11 may be made near enough to the first corrugation so that inkis retained between it and the first corrugation. Capillary attractionholds the ink in the described places, the amount of ink that is takenup, of course, depending upon the size of these several ink-holdingspaces as well as on the fluidity of the ink used. It should, of course,be understood that the sizes of the various slots of the corrugations,etc., may be changed to suit the fluidity of the ink used and accordingto the amount of ink that it is desired to take up. An ink-holdingdevice of this character, it has been found, will take up enough ink towrite approximately five hundred words.

I claim:

1. An ink-retaining and feeding attachment for a pen nib, comprising aslotted, corrugated element, terminating at one end in a split,nib-contacting portion, and terminating at the other end in a mountingportion, and a second element substantially coextensive with saidcorrugated element, which, at one end, is bent into contact with saidnib-contacting portion of the corrugated element.

2. In combination, a pen nib, an ink retaining and feeding attachmentassociated therewith, comprising ink retaining elements formed onopposite ends of a bent metallic strip, the portion of said stripadjacent the bend serving as a mounting shank, the strip being bent onitself so that said ink retaining elements are held in juxtaposition.

3. An ink-retaining and feeding attachment for a pen nib, comprising acorrugated, slotted element formed on one end of a metallic strip, aportion co-extensive with said element formed on the other end of saidstrip, the said strip being bent on itself to bring the said element andsaid portion into juxtaposition, the portion of the metallic stripadjacent the bend serving as a mounting shank for holding the mentionedparts in place.

4. An ink-retaining and feeding attachment for a pen nib, comprising aslotted,

nib-contacting portion, split at one end, a coextensive portionterminating at one end in a part bent into contact with the split end ofsaid nib-contacting portion, and means for holding said two portions inoperative relationship.

5. An ink-retaining and feeding attachment for .a pen nib, comprising aslotted, nib-contacting portion, split at one end, a co-extensiveportion terminating at one end in a split part bent into contact withthe split end of said nib-contacting portion, and means for holding saidtwo portions in operative relationship.

6. An ink-retaining and feeding attachment for use with a pen nib,comprising a slotted, merging at one end, into orwardly extending,split, nibcontacting portion, a slotted, substantially flat portion,co-eXtensive with said corrugated portion and merging, at one end, intoa split portion that is bent into contact with said nib contactingportion, and means for mounting said parts in operative relation withthe pen nib.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

CHARLES F. CLARKE.

